John Law of Lauriston blazed like a meteor over Europe and America in the early eighteenth century before falling to earth.

At the summit of his reputation in 1720, a period lasting just over one hundred days, Law was the most powerful man in France after the Regent, the Duke of Orléans. He was also the richest private citizen in Europe.

For France, brought to the brink by the wars and extravagances of the Sun King, Louis XIV, the Scotsman's financial innovations were a lifeline, but had for consequence a stock-market boom that came spectacularly to grief. The Mississippi Bubble, as it came to be known, left in France a fear of financial modernity that crippled her in her rivalry with Great Britain.

Over the centuries, John Law has been portrayed as a crook, a rake and a madman. James Buchan shows Law was none of those but a powerful mind in pursuit of a vision of public prosperity that overrode all ties to country, property or happiness. Many of his ideas are now the plainest orthodoxy.

Using Law's letters and writings, neglected family papers in Scotland and English county towns, bank ledgers in Genoa and Holland, notarial records and secret police reports in France and Venice, as well as the archive of the Jacobite court in exile, James Buchan resurrects Law's vagabond career

The result is a glimpse of one of the most astonishing lives ever lived.

In Buchan, Law has at last found a biographer who combines an expert understanding of finance, a profound knowledge of 18th-century history, and a novelist's gift for anecdote and pace. The result is an immensely valuable and enjoyable book that conjures a narrative worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson out of a deeply impressive harvest of primary archival research. It is history of the highest class, and will take its place deservedly as the standard biography of Law. (Felix Martin Financial Times.)

Erudite, elegantly-written . . . Full of interesting people, variously disgraceful or brilliant, and of compelling stories overlapped . . . Buchan is possessed of a remarkably well-furnished mind. His story is a tremendous one. (Lucy Hughes-Hallett New Statesman.)

One of our finest writers. (John Burnside The Times.)

I don't believe this country has a better writer to offer than James Buchan. (Michael Hofmann London Review of Books.)

An utterly compelling and captivating work . . . he brings a natural storyteller's relish to his subject (Irvine Welsh Guardian, on The Capital of the Mind.)

The author has written a compelling and erudite account of John Law. Law has been called a con man and a crook. Others have described him as a financial genius. Buchan shows that both descriptions have merit.

Law was born in 1671 in Edinburgh. His father was a master goldsmith and later a property developer plus moneylender. The son went to London to seek his fortune. He gambled a great deal. In April 1694 he was arrested and condemned to death for killing a man in a duel. Law escaped prison and fled to the Netherlands where he lived by gambling and investing in lottery tickets. Lotteries were a common source of government finance. He advertised he was willing to insure tickets.

France in the 1720s was close to bankruptcy thanks to 25 years of war. Law was given permission by the regent for the boy-king Louis XV to start a private bank that would be supported by the Louisiana Project. This was to develop a colony in Louisiana by a company based on the English East India Company. It was a daring scheme that for a few months was very successful. Law became so rich he bought 20 country estates. Unfortunately, like the South Sea Company it collapsed and Law was very lucky to escape with his life.

Buchan clearly is fascinated by money matters. He is the author of an excellent book on Adam Smith and one on the meaning of money called,'Frozen Desire'. This book is very detailed. It provides a superb picture of late 17th and early 18th-century life. The narrative is lucid and complex financial issues are clearly explained.

Law had a complicated private life. He spent his last years in Venice gambling. This is an extraordinary account of an extraordinary man.

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5.0 out of 5 stars
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Christophe P Weber

5.0 out of 5 starsplease put this on US Kindle

12 October 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

I'm giving it 5 stars only because the reviews make it seem so great. But for those who live in many countries, the Kindle version is the most convenient by far, and also easier to read with larger print. Is there any way to know whether this will be available on Kindle?